


Superheroes

by 90sgillovny



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-01 17:23:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15778647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/90sgillovny/pseuds/90sgillovny
Summary: Amelia Shepherd has a brain tumour and Stephanie Edwards is the only person in the world that she would trust with her life.





	Superheroes

**Author's Note:**

> I hope I’m not alone in obsessing over my favourite Neuro Hero’s. I’ve been working on this for a couple of days and thought I would post it here for anyone else who lovesld these two and their friendship! (They were in love)

“It’s like she just doesn’t see me.” Stephanie let out a groan and flopped onto the sofa beside Jo.

“Are you kidding?! I would love to get the kind of attention you get from Shepherd from any other attending. She thinks you’re a freakin’ prodigy.”

“Yeah but she doesn’t see Stephanie, she just sees _Doctor Edwards_.” Her eyes flickered from Jo to the floor when she realises what she’s said.

“Ohhhh.” Jo tilted her head, deep in thought.

“I don’t know what to do. I like her so much and sometimes it’s like she likes me back but maybe she’s just a really good teacher.” She pauses to exhale an exasperated breath. “I just don’t know what to do.”

“Talk to her?”

“What if she rejects me? I’ll have to quit the programme and live in the mountains for fear I might bump into her at Target or something.”

“Steph. Look at you. If she doesn’t want you, she’s crazy.”

“Shut up.” Edwards rolled her eyes just as her pager went off. Her eyes widened. “It’s her. I gotta go!”

When stephanie arrived in the X-Ray room she was paged to, it was in total darkness. 

“Doctor Shepherd?” She edged closer into the room. She couldn’t see her, but she could always feel when Amelia was around her, and she was definitely here somewhere. She turned to switch on the light but someone got there faster.

“Edwards, my dear!” The room illuminated by light boards showing scans of some poor, poor lady’s brain.

“Jesus. What is _that_.” Stephanie immediately pulled up a chair beside Amelia.

“ _That_ , is a brain tumour.” Amelia grinned, sipping her coffee.

“I mean, that’s a whole other brain growing in there. Can we even resect that?” She had a million questions in her head but all she could focus on was the way Amelia was looking at her.

“Well, I can’t. But you can.” Another sip of coffee, like she hadn’t just gone insane.

“What do you mean you can’t? If you can’t do it, then how can I? You’re the best neurosurgeon there is. I’m just a resi-“

“It’s my tumour.”

“Yes. It’s your tumour, you take it. I can’t do this one on my own.”

“No. Stephanie. It’s _my_ tumour. Those are my scans. There is a giant lemon sized mother-sucker growing in my brain and I am not ready to die so, you, Stephanie Edwards. You, are going to spend every waking moment by my side learning everything you need to know about me, my tumour and how the hell you’re gonna get it out of me.” Amelia slammed her coffee cup down and shot out of her seat and it made Stephanie jump.

She was lost in the thought of losing her mentor, her friend and her probable soulmate and lost for where to go from here. Amelia Shepherd just put her life and her career in the hands of a fifth year resident. When she snapped out of her own head she realised the two of them were 2 inches from each other and they were both crying. Stephanie put her hands on either side of Amelia’s face and closed the gap between their bodies.

“I am going to save you.” Steph whispered, placing a kiss on Amelia’s forehead. Amelia nodded, not looking at Stephanie but pulling her into a hug.

-

Three days passed by and Amelia had all but moved into Stephanie’s apartment (again). In true Shepherdess style, she was avoiding Owen Hunt like the plague. She wasn’t willing to show weakness around him. She wasn’t willing to look like she wasn’t in control around another man in her life. She’d been through enough in her life that was out of her control. This was something she could control. She was the best damn neurosurgeon in the country and Stephanie Edwards was her sidekick, her protégée, her friend.

“What if I’m someone else? What if tumourless Amelia Shepherd isn’t this Amelia Shepherd.” Amy sat clutching her coffee like a lifeline, curled up in a blanket with her legs swung over Stephanie’s lap.

“Well, I think that everyone in your life has proved that they love you no matter which version of yourself you are. Meredith, Owen, Me, Maggie.” Her breath caught when she included herself in the list but Amelia didn’t even falter in her reply.

“And I love you all so much. I can’t imagine not having these intense feelings for you all. You’re the only things that keep me sane in this damn world. It scares me to think that what if I’m a worse person without this inside me? What if a fricking tumour is the best neurosurgeon in the country? What if Meredith’s kids have a tumour as an Aunt? What if your best friend is a tumour? What if Owen married a tumour?”

“Amelia.” Stephanie starts a sentence that she doesn’t know how to finish but Amelia understands.

Stephanie yawns, she wants to sleep but Amelia has decided that sleep only wastes time and Steph doesn’t want to leave her alone with her last thoughts.

“Edwards, go to sleep. You have to be back at the hospital in 5 hours.”

“No, I’m fine” Her response barely audible through another yawn.

“I know you, Stephanie. You’re scared to leave me alone. I get it. Big scary tumour. I might throw myself off a building or crash my car into a river.” Stephanie didn’t know how to respond.

“Sleep here.” Amelia lifted her blanket and scooted back into the couch to make room for Stephanie to lie down.

She weighed up the pros and cons of falling asleep curled up to Amelia Shepherd. Cons: it was weird (she definitely wouldn’t sleep with Jo or Warren like this), She’d be left with more questions she doesn’t have answers for. Pros: she would feel Amelia if she tried to get up in the night. She quickly decided that Amelia not accidentally killing herself while she slept outweighed any cons she could think of so she flopped down beside her mentor and Amelia covered her up.

“Goodnight, Edwards.”

“Goodnight, Dr Shepherd.”

-

When Stephanie woke up at what she thought was the next morning, she could feel Amelia’s eyes on her even though she decided not to open hers and ruin whatever moment her mentor was having. Next thing she feels are fingers running through her hair, and lips on her temple. Then, she attempts it, Amelia, wriggling like a baby snake to the bottom of the sofa and rolling off onto the carpeted floor without a sound. If Stephanie wasn’t awake she definitely wouldn’t have been woken by this military style manoeuvre. How was she so dainty and quiet when her personality was so strong and loud? Stephanie peeked out of one of her eyes to see Amelia passing, she reached out and grabbed the other woman’s wrist.

“Shepherd, sit.” She mumbled, still half asleep.

“But, Mom!” Amelia mocked.

“Sit. Sleep.” She whispered, almost back asleep but her grip just as tight on the other woman’s hand

“Sleep is for people who have time, my dear. And time... I do not have.” This made Stephanie snap out of her sleep.

“No. You can’t keep doing this. You tell me I can fix you. You say I’m just as good as you and that you trust me to take this thing out of you. But you act like you could drop dead in a minute. Do you not think I can do this? Because I am not going to get you on an O.R. table and watch you die. I can’t watch you die. I can’t let you die. You can’t die.” Stephanie was shaking and tears were spilling out of her eyes and by the time she finished screaming, the end of her sentence became a whisper.

Amelia runs her hands through her hair, she glances at the door and then back to Stephanie and back to the door. She thinks about running. She’s always thinking about running. But she can’t. There’s something about Stephanie Edwards that she can’t run away from, that she doesn’t want to run away from. She walks slowly back over to the couch and lowers herself onto the table adjacent to where Stephanie is sat and takes her hands, she can feel her trembling and it makes her feel like her heart could break in two.

“Steph.” She exhales. “You, are everything. I believe in everything you do. Every word you say, every move you make as a doctor, as a person, as a friend. I trust you with my life and my career. I trust that you will do every single thing in your power to give me my best chance. But it’s me. I don’t trust myself. I don’t trust myself to come out of this. I want so badly to see Zola graduate high school, to see Bailey starting school, to hear Ellis’ first words, to offer you Chief of Neuro when I’m 80 years old and can’t see my own scalpel anymore. But this tumour has a track record of taking away the things that I want most in the world. So stop. Stop thinking that I would ever think you untrustworthy. I’m giving you my brain because you’re the only person who understands it.”

They sit with those words for a while. Not saying anything more but still holding hands. Stephanie wishes she could just kiss her and tell her everything would be okay and it’s all a bit of a blur but she thinks she might’ve actually done it because all of a sudden her hands are cold and the house is empty.

-

Nobody can find Amelia the next day. Although her surgeries were delegated to other attendings until her own surgery, she had been in the hospital everyday checking post op’s, sitting in the gallery or having her own tests done, but today she was nowhere to be seen.

Stephanie and Jo are in the line at the cafeteria when Jo asks where Amelia is.

“No idea.” Steph shrugs, making eye contact with the lasagne on the hot plate instead of her friend.

“Stephane. You’ve pretty much had Shepherd on a leash since she told you she was sick. She’s been living at your house. Did something happen?”

“No! Jo, leave it alone. Nothing hap-“ She was interrupted by Meredith Grey carrying a lunch tray.

“You kissed my sister?! You know she has a tumour and a husband, right? She doesn’t need your horny resident feelings all over her.” She warned and Jo’s jaw just about hit the floor in shock.

“Dr. Grey, it wasn’t like that. I-“

“You what? You love her? Well, so do I and so do my kids and so does Owen Hunt. She’s supposed to have scans today but instead she’s hiding out in my bathroom because she thinks she loves you back. Now, I will not stand for my sister dying because her girlfriend doesn’t like her back.”

“But, I-“

“Fix it, Edwards” Meredith walked away with a dismissive wave of her hand.

“Stephanie, what the hell?!” Jo slapped her arm lightly, not believing her best friend hadn’t told her about this already.

“It- it didn’t happen. The tumour must be progressing. Causing hallucinations. I have to go see her and bring her for her scans.” Stephanie was already halfway across the cafeteria before she finished her sentence.

She started running. Ignoring both Richard and Bailey’s separate orders of “no running in the hospital”. But she had to get out. She had to find Amelia. The entire drive to Meredith’s house all Stephanie could hear in her head was Meredith’s voice.

“She thinks she loves you back.” 


End file.
